I am a die-hard fan of Dragon Age: Origins (poured about 300 hours into it), but I absolutely despised Dragon Age 2... I hated nearly everything about it, and it was most likely the biggest disappointment of my "gaming career". I'm still waiting for Dragon Age 3 and hoping it'll at least be decent, but I don't expect much at this point to be honest. I doubt that they will be able to recapture the magic Origin had, and the recent changes within Bioware would seem to indicate that.

"Few concrete details are known concerning BioWare's upcoming Dragon Age III: Inquisition, but the developer has now gone on record saying it has been influenced by The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Speaking to Game Informer (via Kotaku), BioWare Edmonton and Montreal general manager Aaryn Flynn said it would be impossible to create a role-playing game today without acknowledging and reacting to Bethesda's award-winning game."

"You can't look at a game like Skyrim and not think about how impressive what they've accomplished is or [think] that's an interesting new direction or that there was something that didn't work well for them that we could take in a new direction," Flynn said. "So, we're always influenced by these games, especially in a relatively tight-knit genre like RPGs." -- Source: Gamespot

Actually you can easily ignore a game like Skyrim. Especially since the core design philosophy behind DA is completely different from TES. I'll take a more narrow slice of 'content' with more carefully designed gameplay over 'here, have a shitload of mediocre randomness.'

Unless your owner says your game must sell a bazillion copies, so make it like Skyrim,' there's no reason to homogenize.

Also, Skyrim wasn't a new direction. Unless you count selling way more than its predecessors despite being the same basic game' as a new direction. Which is exactly what he's saying, in PR speak.

« Last Edit: December 05, 2012, 12:47:54 PM by Taelus »

Logged

Friends, waffles, work. Or waffles, friends, work. Doesn't matter, but work is third.

Actually you can easily ignore a game like Skyrim. Especially since the core design philosophy behind DA is completely different from TES. I'll take a more narrow slice of 'content' with more carefully designed gameplay over 'here, have a shitload of mediocre randomness.'

Unless your owner says your game must sell a bazillion copies, so make it like Skyrim,' there's no reason to homogenize.

Also, Skyrim wasn't a new direction. Unless you count selling way more than its predecessors despite being the same basic game' as a new direction. Which is exactly what he's saying, in PR speak.

Couldn't agree more. Personally I've never really liked Bethesda's RPGs and it's sad to see Bioware being so insecure about their own legacy. They have been responsible for some really great games (including the original Dragon Age) that are in a completely different style than Bethesda. A style I actually like.

I can only pray that this is just PR speak and they're not actually abandoning the things used to make them great...

Actually you can easily ignore a game like Skyrim. Especially since the core design philosophy behind DA is completely different from TES. I'll take a more narrow slice of 'content' with more carefully designed gameplay over 'here, have a shitload of mediocre randomness.'

Unless your owner says your game must sell a bazillion copies, so make it like Skyrim,' there's no reason to homogenize.

Also, Skyrim wasn't a new direction. Unless you count selling way more than its predecessors despite being the same basic game' as a new direction. Which is exactly what he's saying, in PR speak.

Couldn't agree more. Personally I've never really liked Bethesda's RPGs and it's sad to see Bioware being so insecure about their own legacy. They have been responsible for some really great games (including the original Dragon Age) that are in a completely different style than Bethesda. A style I actually like.

I can only pray that this is just PR speak and they're not actually abandoning the things used to make them great...

I also agree. I loved Skyrim, but I also loved Dragon Age (both games), and I play them both for different game experiences. As much as I loved Skyrim/Fallout, I can only take so much of their open-world game formula.